Claimed by the Pack

I clutched him against me, even as my core contracted around him. Christophe’s scrotum, pressed heavy and full against my entrance, began twitching and pulsing as he dumped himself inside me.

Oh God…

For the one shining moment we were one. Two beautiful bodies, melded against one another, sharing in the highest levels of mutual pleasure. Our mouths sought one other’s as we rode through over the pinnacle and down the other side, coasting through euphoric ecstasy, breaking free — at least for a minute — of anything and everything else.

Moments later he was nothing more to me than a hot, heaving sack of muscle and sinew. I rolled out from beneath him, my own chest rising and falling with each gasping breath.

“Now go…” I breathed. “See if you can find them.”

Christophe allowed himself a minute, then rolled off the bed. His expression was loyalty. Loyalty and something else. Whatever it was, I didn’t care. Outside of our sexual energy, there wasn’t enough of a connection between us to care.

I watched him leave, admiring his nakedness from behind. His body was built to please. For that at least, I was thankful.

“Karessa…”

Boone had been waiting there patiently, as usual. He pushed forward, seeking to enter me again. I clamped my legs closed. He looked back at me all wounded, like a child that had been denied a treat.

“Not now,” I said flatly. I really didn’t need to explain myself. “Later, maybe.”

He lowered his chin and accepted the refusal. That he did so easily, and without even a fight, made me fiercely angry.

My other mates would never have accepted such a rejection…

Not Broderick. Not Damien. Not in a million years.

No, they would’ve taken what they wanted.

“Go help Christophe,” I ordered. “I want them found tonight.”

Boone looked down at the floor as he began pulling on his clothing. “They may not be so easy to find,” he offered. “From what I understand—”

“Excuses,” I snarled. “Always with the excuses.”

I rolled onto my stomach. Physically I was sated, at least for now. Mentally and emotionally however…

“Look for the girl,” I said. “Find her, and you’ll find them.”

The girl. She’d shown up earlier in the week, to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. Her whole damned organization was like that. ‘The Order’, or something along those lines. I’d been only marginally familiar with it. Told stories by the elders.

I knew exactly why she was here, too. Her people had helped Damien once, and now it seemed they were aiding him again. Only there was something else, also. Something they wanted.

Something from the ruins, deep beneath this place…

I glanced around as the door closed. The inner sanctum of the cathedral was Gothic and beautiful, even with all these modern touches. It had been an amazing place. Our place. The place where I’d taken Broderick upon first making him. The place we’d brought Damien, still confused and frightened, into our fold.

It was a place we always ran to, hearts pounding, blood flowing hotly through our veins. A place we writhed, the three of us, beneath these very silken sheets. Rutting like animals…

I growled, angrily. That we might have to abandon it simply because of the intrusion of this girl made me want to pound her through a wall. She was an interloper! An outsider!

And then Damien had mated her…

My vision went blood red. My body shook. I was on the edge now. The very edge of—

The door opened and Lionel limped in. He took one look at my face and stopped dead.

“Karessa,” he mumbled hesitantly. “I—”

CRASH!